Best Practices

Instructional Strategies
Instructional Strategies

The following was part of an inservice program held on June 8, 2009 at York Tech.

Web 2.0 and Tic Tac Toe:

The evolution of differentiation in the classroom
Carol Zortman, English Department Chair and KTI

Description of Presentation - How to spice up your units with INternet resources and give your students choices in their learning.

Web 2.0 - Internet sites that allow us to interact and share.

Differentiation - Making opportunities for a variety of learning styles in the educationally engaged classroom.

Kathie Nunley's Web Site for Teachers - 5 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Layered Curriculum

The New Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills

My early units used "A", "B", and "C" layers with the Higher Order Thinking (HOT) skills in the "B" and "A" layers.

Later designs required students to complete activities in all layers so that used HOT skills were used by all students.



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Puritan layers.doc
Online Crossword Puzzle Generator

Beowulf
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Beowulf layers II 2008.doc
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/398947
http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/383081

Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales
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Canterbury Tales layers 2008.doc
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Canterbury Tales A layer 2008.doc
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Canterbury Tales B layers 2008.doc
Quizlet Pilgrim Flash Cards
Quizlet Vocabulary Flash Cards
Canterbury Tales at Amazon: Puffin edition - Marcia Williams edition

The Crucible
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Crucible layers 2008.doc
Courtroom Sketches
101 Ways to Love a Book by Melissa Hart

Shakespeare and Macbeth
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Macbeth layers 2009.doc

William Shakespeare at Brain POP User id: yorktech Password: ycstech
Pop-Up Book Instructions Scholastic ThinkQuest
Wordle
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Moby Dick
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Moby Dick layers 2009 tic tac toe.doc
Bio-Cube
Class Blog

Gulliver's Travels
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Character Trading Cards
The Ballad of Gilligan's Island

Dickinson and Whitman
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Voki - create animated avatars
Moodle - place your Voki anywhere

Internet sources:
YCST Media Center Research Wiki
My Delicious Account
Teachers Pay Teachers
Museum Box AWESOME site for creating visual and auditory Internet based projects.
Blogger - Can also reach through Google site under MORE then EVEN MORE
Puzzlemaker - free
BrainPOP password and user ID required. YCST has an account
Toondoo - free
Quizlet - free
Discovery Streaming - password and user ID required. YCST has an account.
Spelling City - free
PhotoStory 3 - free download
ReadWriteThink.org
Study Shack - Find data to study or add your own data. Study and play with data online as flashcards, hangman game, crossword puzzle, matching, word search, or word scramble. Study anytime/anywhere by printing data or exporting flash cards to your cell phone, PDA, or iPod.
BeFunky- Turn your photos into incredible artwork with one click. Free – no registration
Word Central - Dictionary – Thesaurus – Rhyming
Photovisi Create wallpapers - use in presentations
dMarie Time Capsule Generator - free - use in presentations, research
Glogster - online poster - blog
Common Craft - How blogs work
YCST Senior Tip Blog - How can you use a blog in the classroom?????
Poetry Blog - Awesome use of a blog - If you teach poetry check out the writing assignments.
Widgetbox - need a calendar, time and temp, clock ... for your blog or Moodle?

Print Resources - available at Amazon, Scholastic, and sometimes Borders
Handbook on Differentiated Instruction for Middle and High Schools
Fast Ideas for BusyTeachers
Graphic Organiers and Activities for Differentiated Instruction in Reading
50 Graphic Organizers for Reading, Writing & More
25 Fun and Fabulous Literature Response Activities and Rubrics
25 Terrific Literature Activities for Readers of All Learning Styles
Better Than Book Reports More than 40 Creative Responses to Literature
Creative Book Reports: Fun Projects with Rubrics for Fiction and Nonfiction
10 Ready-to-Go Book Report Projects
Differentiation in Action
Teaching Writing through Differentiated Instruction with Leveled Graphic Organizers
35 Ways to Publish Students' Research & Writing
24 Ready-to-Go Genre Book Reports
Medieval Times 325 - 1453 A.D.
Medieval Times Activitiy Book
Read Aloud Plays The Middle Ages
Novel Units - Master List
The Usborne Internet-Linked Medieval World
Hands-On-History Middle Ages

Classroom Management

YCST Classroom Management Blog